Pakistan Is About To Hang A Schizophrenic Man Because Its Court Says It Is Not Mental Illness

In the eyes of the liberals of India, Pakistan is a great nation – perhaps greater than India itself. The liberals, quite shockingly, take pride in everything Pakistani. So it would not be a surprise that the same liberals who shower their love for Pakistan on Twitter and Facebook will remain mum on this issue.

Days after Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that schizophrenia is not a mental disease, a local court gave the green signal to the hanging of a schizophrenic man.

The man, Imdad Ali, has been diagnosed with “paranoid schizophrenic”, which in medical terms mean insane.

Imdad Ali was convicted in 2008 for killing a religious preacher in 2002.

Ali, now 50, had allegedly killed a religious preacher in 2002. He was sentenced to death in 2008. Doctors found him suffering from the mental illness in 2012. They said that his condition is “chronic and disabling”.

He was to be executed in September this year but the Supreme Court of Pakistan had stayed the order following demands of human rights groups. But now the period of the stay has expired which means the decks are clear for Imdad’s hanging.

And even the government of Pakistan is quick to ensure that he is hanged. The Interior Ministry has issued the “black warrant” against Imdad. The President had already rejected his mercy plea.

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Safia Bano, Ali’s wife, at a demonstration demandiong clemency for her husband. AP

Is anyone peeved about this? Yes, rights group are angry and say that Ali’s hanging would be an “indelible stain on Pakistan’s reputation”.

Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, an international human rights organisation, has said, “It is terrifying to think that a mentally ill man like Imdad Ali could now hang because judges are pretending that schizophrenia is not a serious condition.”

And that is the condition of Pakistan. Now contrast this with India.

In March 2014, Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the honourable Supreme Court of India because of two reasons: One, there was a delay in the disposal of mercy plea, and, two, Bhullar was mentally ill (schizophrenic). Bhullar was convicted in the 1993 Delhi bombings.